


Sleepless on the Starblaster

by ok_but_first_tea



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Insomnia, also blupjeans is still like pining mode but we all know how that goes, its all projection my dudes, lup has some trouble sleeping, taako is mentioned - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-06
Packaged: 2019-04-19 06:50:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14231667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ok_but_first_tea/pseuds/ok_but_first_tea
Summary: Lup was tired. Though she smiled, and nodded, and sipped her tea, she was tired.She hid it well. After all, Lup had Taako, so she learned from the best.Though she should have known Barry would know anyway. The way he pulled her into his arms, The way he rubbed small circles in her back? She should have known.





	Sleepless on the Starblaster

**Author's Note:**

> it's all projection. thats all it is. hope i havent made too many typo's pls enjoy <3  
> (also if its like, morning territory for you and you haven't slept yet, go do that, please)

Lup was tired. Though she smiled, and nodded, and sipped her tea, she was tired.

She hid it well. After all, Lup had Taako, so she learned from the best. 

Though she should have known Barry would know anyway. The way he pulled her into his arms, The way he rubbed small circles in her back? She should have known.

But her mind had trouble focussing on anything other than that stupid cereal jingle she heard Taako humm three days ago. She wanted to cry. She almost did when Barry pulled back and looked into her eyes. He was so warm. So kind and soft and, above anything,  _ safe. _ He was so Barry that sh almost let all her walls slip without second thought. 

“Rough night huh?” He asked. Because it was 4AM and she had been making pancakes. 

“Yeah.” She whispered. Rough night. She wanted to laugh. She wanted to cry. 

She felt her heart shake her chest loose in the worst way. She felt her cold, cold fingers dig into his back as she clam onto him. She felt the world around them fizzle away as her brain decided that Barry smelled good, and that was the only thing it could focus on for the next minute.

He held on to her.He felt solid. He felt like the only thing not shaking and dancing in the room- not making her nauseous. 

He smelled like sleep. While she was transfixed on his smell, she figured out that that probably was because it was 4AM, which is a time normal people are asleep. 

“Come to bed?” Barry asked. And his voice was so soft. She still flinched, her ears twitching, as the words tumbled down on her like it’s raining rocks. 

Her breath came out stuttered. “Alright.” She said.

She didn’t know how much time was between his question and her answer. She didn’t know how she suddenly got into his room. Time was fake anyway, she figured. Though she was there now, and there was a bed. 

Lup didn’t want to. Not really. Not without her brother. 

Taako would kill her if he reset and she wasn’t taking care of herself. He’d be pissed. 

So she lay down on the mattress. The bed still felt warm and the pillow smelled like Barry. It was almost too much. Too much senses, too much input. 

Barry stood at the side. 

“I can just look over some notes while you sleep. I promise I won’t go if you don’t want me too.” The “i promise I’ll wake you up if you have nightmares” hang silently between them. But that wasn’t Lup’s problem. Taako’s night terrors had always been visible. He couldn’t hide them so he put them out in open daylight and let everyone think it wasn’t a problem to him. 

(it was.) 

(they didn’t believe him anyway.)

But Lup? Lup could hide it. Sort of. Not to Barry, apparently. But point is, Lup let everyone think that when they said they have “sleep problems” and Taako admitted his night terrors, everyone thought they’d be the same. Everyone thought she’d have nightmares, too. 

Lup had never corrected them. She didn’t want to talk about it. Taako’s screams they heard, but never hers, so they figured she was fine. She was fine with it like that. 

Though now she lay in bed, her eyes were wide open once again. The feeling of Wrong and Bad seeping into her veins and dripping through into her subconscious. 

“Sleep with me?” Lup asked. She couldn’t stand the feeling of “too much space” and she was just about desperate enough to ask their local nerd boy for company. 

Barry sat down beside her. His hand hovered over her shoulder for a bit, but settled in his lap. 

“You sure your okay with that?” He asked. Considerate. Kind. She wanted to laugh if she had the energy, the focus, to. It was such a Barry question. Like he thought she really believed he would, she didn’t know what he thought. That he would hurt her? Touch her without her consent? Neither a thing Barold Bluejeans is capable off, in her opinion. 

She looked at him. Her mind was dazed by the cloud of heavy nothing that settled over it. She felt like pure electricity bound tightly together by only thick rope. 

She looked at him. She smiled.

“Move over.” Barry said. Not like a question. Not like a demand. He just said it in his own way. Soft. Kind. Warm. 

He was so warm.

“Your hands are freezing.” He said. He was settled beside her. She didn’t know when that happened, she figured somewhere between her closing her eyes and opening them again.

Barry lay awkwardly to the side. The bed might be a bit too small, but Lup was used to sharing slightly too small beds. 

She draped her arm around him, pulling him closer and bumping her nose against his shoulder.

“This okay?” She mumbled against the fabric of his shirt.

His breath hitched and her brain error-ed out on that. She decided to leave it alone for now. 

“Yeah.” He whispered.

There was a silence where Lup’s brain tried to tell her that that’s not her brother, and where Lup tried to tell her brain that she already knew that. 

Barry, ever awkward Barry, broke the silence. 

“I figured you wouldn’t want to stay in your room now-... well. Now it’s half, um..” 

“Thanks.” Lup replied. He didn’t need to finish the sentence. They both knew he meant the cold emptiness of their shared room, now Taako was out of commission for the last few months of the year. 

“G’night, Barry.” She said. She nuzzled his shoulder, it still smelled like Barry and also sleep. 

“Sleep well, Lup.” He said. He sounded fond. 

She liked it. So she snuggled in deeper in his embrace, and finally, finally her brain shut up. 

It was warm, and safe. She had someone she trusted, and it was okay. 

It would all be okay. 

 


End file.
